In the procect „Wir rechnen miteinander“ primary-school pupils from Treptow-Köpenick were developing maths problems together with their teachers and sent them to other pupils from neighbouring schools. Thus, as Jana Sänger from the local education authority of Treptow-Köpenick pointed out, „the children not only encountered mathematics in a very hands-on way, they also had the chance to meet the pupils from the neighbourhood“.
The innovative concept of MATHEATHLON was invented by the Research Center Matheon in 2009 on the occasion of the Athletics World Championships that took place in Berlin. Under the motto „Athletics and Arithmetics“ the competition combines sports and mathematics in a unique way. The pupils have to run a distance of 400 or 800 metres. There are three stops inbetween where they have to solve little maths problems. Each correct answer is rewarded with a two seconds credit. Those, who managed to solve all three tasks, gain two more seconds. In this way, arithmetic specialists can even overtake good runners.
Since 2009, the competition takes place in Berlin once a year. In addition, Matheon sends the tasks to interested parties all over the world. Thus, each school and each club has the opportunity to perform a MATHEATHLON on site. Every year, about twenty schools and associations make use of this offer, including schools from abroad - last year, for example, the German School in Nairobi (Kenya).